Batavia residents hear danger of heroin abuse

October 11, 2013|By Alexa Aguilar, Special to the Tribune

Heroin use in the suburbs has been an escalating trend for years in the Chicago metropolitan area, with suburban users traveling to Chicago’s West Side to buy the drug. (Christopher Smith, Chicago Tribune)

With stunning statistics coming from DuPage County about heroin use – officials said one person dies there every eight days from a heroin overdose -- Batavia school leaders decided the time was right to inform residents to be aware of its insidious reach.

"It's certainly in our area," said JoAnne Smith, principal at Batavia High School. "We haven't had this happen yet at our school, but we know that it's happening tomorrow. We want to make sure parents are equipped. We want them to have those discussions at the dinner table."

Smith and other school officials invited a panel to discuss the drug recently at the high school, with heartbreaking testimony from those who lost family members to the drug and a young man who is a recovering addict.

"My brother was more than just a number," said Kristin Gutierrez, a Batavia resident whose brother, Louie Miceli, died last year at 23 of a heroin overdose. "He had his whole life in front of him, and heroin stole it away."

Heroin use in the suburbs has been an escalating trend for years in the Chicago metropolitan area, with suburban users traveling to Chicago's West Side to buy the drug. Experts say the drug is purer, and that injecting it is no longer necessary – two factors that make addiction that much more rapid a process.

Kane County Coroner Rob Russell was on hand to spell out the reality of heroin use in Kane County.

In 2012, there were 27 heroin deaths in Kane County, he said. In 2013, there have been 14 deaths this year, he added.

"If your goal is to not end up in my office, do not start using heroin," Russell said. "It you make a mistake and do, it's a long, hard road back."

Batavia police Officer Matt White, who is also the school resource officer at Batavia High School, said that heroin is traveling through Batavia and has been found on drivers stopped in the community.

Someone in Batavia died of a heroin overdose last week in the city, he said.

White had his own personal story to share: In 2001, his 23-year-old brother died of a heroin overdose. They had been raised the same way, he said, yet one brother became addicted to heroin, while another became a police officer.

"Heroin does not discriminate," he said.

Richard Hertz, of Addison, recounted for the crowd of more than 50 how he mistakenly took heroin for the first time as high-school student 11 years ago, thinking it was a different drug.

Its toll was heavy. He began skipping school to beat the traffic on I-290 to get his fix for the day.

He stole from his family, his friends, sneaked out of treatment programs and lived in vacant houses.

"I lost everything," he said. "My family and friends wanted nothing to do with me."

He's been clean for six years, he said, but must constantly be watchful not to let addiction slip back into his life.

The assembled panel told parents to be mindful of warning signs of drug use in their children, with everything from constricted pupils to missing items named as potential red flags.

Panel members also cautioned against leaving prescription drug painkillers available in medicine cabinets, as an addiction to those opiates can lead to abuse of easier-to-obtain and cheaper heroin.

"We know that the topic of substance use and abuse is a difficult one to have with your families," said Erin Reid, an assistant principal at the high school. "But knowledge is one of the best ways to prevent" heroin use from starting.